Man, then, was thus
snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his Creator’s
command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with God,
and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is
the meaning of the fig-leaves19241924Gen. iii. 7; cf. Greg. Naz., Orat. 38
and 42; Greg. Nyss., Orat. Catech. c. 8.); and was
clothed about with death, that is, mortality and the grossness of flesh
(for this is what the garment of skins signifies); and was banished
from Paradise by God’s just judgment, and condemned to death, and
made subject to corruption. Yet, notwithstanding all this, in His
pity, God, Who gave him his being, and Who in His graciousness bestowed
on him a life of happiness, did not disregard man19251925 Text, παρεῖδεν.
Variant, περιεῖδεν.. But He first trained him in many
ways and called him back, by groans and trembling, by the deluge of
water, and the utter destruction of almost the whole race19261926Gen. vi. 13., by confusion and diversity of
tongues19271927Ibid. xi.
7., by the
rule19281928ἐπιστασία,
care, or dominion. of angels19291929Gen. xviii. 1 seqq., by the burning of cities19301930Ibid.
xix. 1seqq., by figurative manifestations of God, by
wars and victories and defeats, by signs and wonders, by manifold
faculties, by the law and the prophets: for by all these means
God earnestly strove to emancipate man from the wide-spread and
enslaving bonds of sin, which had made life such a mass of iniquity,
and to effect man’s return to a life of happiness. For it
was sin that brought death like a wild and savage beast into the
world19311931Wisd. ii. 24. to the ruin of the human life. But
it behoved the Redeemer to be without sin, and not made liable through
sin to death, and further, that His nature should be strengthened and
renewed, and trained by labour and taught the way of virtue which leads
away from corruption to the life eternal and, in the end, is revealed
the mighty ocean of love to man that is about Him19321932Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 12 and 38.. For the very Creator and Lord
Himself undertakes a struggle19331933 Text, πάλην. Variant,
πλάσιν, cf.
“plasmationem” (Faber). in behalf of
the work of His own hands, and learns by toil to become Master.
And since the enemy snares man by the hope of Godhead, he himself is
snared in turn by the screen of flesh, and so are shown at once the
goodness and wisdom, the justice and might of God. God’s
goodness is revealed in that He did not disregard19341934 Text, παρείδε.
Variant, περιεῖδεν. the frailty of His own handiwork, but
was moved with compassion for him in his fall, and stretched forth His
hand to him: and His justice in that when man was overcome He did
not make another victorious over the tyrant, nor did He snatch man by
might from death, but in His goodness and justice He made him, who had
become through his sins the slave of death, himself once more conqueror
and rescued like by like, most difficult though it seemed: and
His wisdom is seen in His devising the most fitting solution of the
difficulty19351935Greg. Nyss.,
Orat. Cathec., ch. 20 et seqq.. For by
the good pleasure of our God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word
of God and God, Who is in the bosom of the God and Father19361936 St. John i. 18., of like essence with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without beginning and was
in the beginning, Who is in the presence of the God and Father, and is
God and made in the form of God19371937Phil. ii. 6., bent the
heavens and descended to earth: that is to say, He humbled
without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not be humbled,
and condescends to His servants19381938
“Condescends to His servants” is absent in some
mss., with a
condescension ineffable and incomprehensible: (for that is what
the descent signifies). And God being perfect becomes perfect
man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things19391939Eccles. i. 10., the only new thing under the Sun,
through which the boundless might of God is manifested. For what
greater thing is there, than that God should become Man? And the
Word became flesh without being changed, of the Holy Spirit, and Mary
the holy and ever-virgin one, the mother of God. And He acts as
mediator between God and man, He the only lover of man conceived in the
Virgin’s chaste womb without will19401940Greg. Nyss.,
Cat. ch. 16.
or desire, or any connection with man or pleasurable generation, but
through the 46bHoly
Spirit and the first offspring of Adam. And He becomes obedient
to the Father Who is like unto us, and finds a remedy for our
disobedience in what He had assumed from us, and became a pattern of
obedience to us without which it is not possible to obtain
salvation19411941Athan., De salut.
adv. Christi..